Lucas Helder, the 21-year-old mailbox bombing suspect who sent an anti-government letter to The Badger Herald before being taken into FBI custody, pleaded innocent to federal charges Friday.
FBI reports say the UW-Stout student has claimed responsibility for 18 attempted pipe bombings, six of which exploded and caused injury. But Helder did not speak at his brief appearance before U.S. Magistrate John Jarvey in a Cedar Falls, Iowa court. His layer entered the plea for him.
Now being held until his Sept. 16 court date, Helder could face from 37 years to life in prison if convicted of the two charges against him in Iowa, using an explosive to damage personal property with resulting personal injury, and carrying and possessing a pipe bomb while committing a federal crime. He is also being tried in Illinois and Nebraska.
In the nation’s state of heightened security awareness since Sept. 11 and as President Bush calls for a cabinet department restructure to increase national security, the FBI classifies Helder’s alleged crimes as “acts of domestic terrorism.”
Helder confessed to a trail of violence that began on May 3 when mail carriers and rural residents of western Illinois and eastern Iowa started finding crude bombs in roadside mailboxes, eight in the two states.
Explosions injured six people, four of them letter carriers, in Illinois and Iowa that day. The victims variously suffered face, arm and hand injuries, and hearing losses. Only one was kept at a hospital and she was later released.
The following day eight bombs turned up to the west in Nebraska. The first 16 bombs were placed in two large circular patterns, one group in Iowa and Illinois, the second in eastern Nebraska.
Helder sent a six-page anti-government manifesto to The Badger Herald from the Suburban Inn in Omaha entitled, “Explosions! A Bit of Evidence for you!” Enclosed was a cover letter and a copy of the tidy letter that accompanied pipe bombs left in rural mailboxes.
Doug Hoellen, owner of the Suburban Inn where Helder resided in Omaha, said 10 to 12 other letters were included in the pile with the letter sent to the Herald.
After leaving Nebraska, Helder apparently drove south. Two bombs were found later in Colorado and Texas.
The devices were made with 6-inch pipes and nine-volt batteries — were left with typewritten anti-government letters, which promised more violence to get attention.
Sheriff Ron Skinner of Pershing County, Nevada, said after Helder’s arrest that Helder was trying to complete a massive, multi-state “smiley face” sketch with his deposits.
Helder, whose family lives in Pine Island, Minnesota, allegedly began his cross-country spree after leaving UW-Stout, where he had been a junior studying art and design.
Neither prosecutors nor Helder’s attorney, public defender Jane Kelly, would comment after the arraignment. Helder’s parents, who live in Minnesota, did not attend the hearing.
— Reuters contributed to this report.
